Growing interest in energy in recent years has attracted attention on a technique that enables supply and demand adjustment of energy. According to this technique, in order to suppress energy demand at its peak, a supply side (utility company) requests a demand side (consumers) to reduce energy usage during a peak period of time, and an equivalent (hereinafter also called an incentive) is paid to a consumer having responded to the request for reduction.
Examples of a major rate menu relating to an incentive to be given by supply and demand adjustment include: a rate depending on time zones according to which a price is made higher in a time zone where energy demand is at its peak; charge to be made at an emergency peak intended to suppress energy usage by charging a price during stringency in energy supply and demand that is several times as high as that charged during a normal time; and a real-time rate according to which prices change in cooperation with a wholesale energy market price.
Conventionally, one-way notification from the supply side to the demand side has been used to adjust an energy amount. A mechanism of this adjustment is roughly divided into indirect supply and demand adjustment according to which the supply side urges the demand side to reduce energy usage by presenting an incentive to the demand side, and direct supply and demand adjustment according to which the supply side directly controls a load through a communication line based on a contract.
In contrast to the aforementioned conventional mechanisms, suppression of energy consumption in a more elaborate manner is expected for the future to be achieved by a smart grid or a smart community responsive to bidirectional control of the supply side and the demand side.
As an example, there has been a power supply and demand adjustment support system provided as a system to support in supply and demand adjusting task by a utility business operator (see patent literature 1, for example). Patent literature 1 describes that a target demand value is managed in units of consumers. This acts as means of support in the supply and demand adjusting task, thereby providing means of suppressing power to be used at a peak.
As another example, there has been a power distribution system acting as a system to encourage consumes to reduce energy consumption (see patent literature 2, for example). Patent literature 2 describes that power reduction is achieved by auction held between a terminal of a utility company and terminals of the consumers.